Missing Malaysia airliner: NGO activist’s family shattered

The news of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines aircraft going missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has left the family of Chandrika Sharma, a Chennai-based NGO activist, shattered.

Her husband, KS Narendran, a management consultant is in a state of shock ever since the news came of the aircraft possibly crashing into sea off the Vietnam coast on Saturday morning. Neither her family nor any of her colleagues International Collective in Support of Fisherfolks (ICSF), the NGO she was associated with received any official communication from the airlines authorities till the time this report went to press.

Search and rescue operations are on for the aircraft carrying 239 passengers that vanished from radar screens just half an hour after takeoff.

Chandrika, 51, hails from Haryana and has been living in Chennai since her marriage 20 years ago. She has been working with the NGO ICSF as executive secretary for the past 10 years and was going to Mongolia to present a paper at a conference organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Her colleague, N Venugopal said, “Narendran and other family members are shattered and are not in a mental state to talk to anyone.”

Sebastian Mathew, advisor, ICSF, said “Chandrika was supposed to present a paper on the guidelines on the livelihood of fish workers and sustainable fisheries.” She was trying to get the attention of FAO on the problems faced by small fish workers.

He also described her as a committed worker and a wonderful parent. Chandrika’s 18-year old daughter, Meghna studies English literature in Ambedkar College in Delhi.